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Day 11,

Saturday, August 2^nd, 2003.

 

Devil’s gate. A black and white day.

 

Here is how one of the most ridiculous moments of the whole journey started.

Early, at around 5 am I heard how lawn watering system started spraying water some distance away. I noted that it was strange that water was spraying for so long – nearly 30 minutes. Yet, I was thinking all this being half asleep. As you probably already guessed, suddenly water started spraying near the tent – directly under the rain fly. In a moment, I was under the cold shower going through the mosquito net.

In underwear, I jumped out of the tent and tried to cover the beam with a towel, but it was so powerful that towel was just flying away like a feather from the fan; meanwhile, I got splashed by the cold water. All this happened in the matter of 30 seconds. What an unexpected way of getting up. J

 

As I suspected from yesterday’s thorns near the lake – rear tire was flat. When tube was out and inflated, air was whistling from at least 3 holes, two of which were too far for one patch but too close for two patches. I decided to just put a new tube and be careful next time. After all, the price of the tube is $3 and the price of the patches, at least the ones I got last time – were a dollar each.

 

Next several miles after Lee Vining, there was another nasty climb. At least 3 miles to a Conway Summit at an elevation of 8138 feet, this is the highest point on US 395 between Southern California and Canada. Spectacular views of Mono Lake can be seen from the south side of the summit.

 

Walking on the shoulder, I was slowly being fried by the sun and heat reflecting from the asphalt. Large section of the climb was also under construction – with only one lane serving for both directions, which made passing me difficult.

A little further, the road immediately next to the mountain side, was fenced, and huge rocks, up to 1 foot, were lying on the lane. The road was being expanded.

 

At the top of the hill, there was some kind of saloon on the left, which turned out to be closed. I saw a table bench under the tree and went there to rest and drink water. The feeling was pretty crazy - you know when physical sensations dominannt your whole state of consciousness. I was just being there, cooling down like an overheated engine, not thinking about anything but enjoying the moment.

 

The time was not waiting for me, so soon I was back on the road.

In another hour and a half, and approximately 20 miles of riding, I entered a town called Bridgeport.

The grocery prices in a local store were extremely high. I bought a several dollars burrito, cream cheese and few bananas.

 

Before the Bridgeport, road was going north, at least that’s the sort of impression I had. In town, road turned left and now I had a sensation of going in the wrong, western direction. Looking at the closer map, it indeed showed that the highway turned left.

 

Being already pretty tired, hungry, with this hot weather, I was now going in the wrong direction.

For a moment I noticed a beautiful, peaceful field with slowly eating grass cows, and a pretty, clear-water creek. (Refer to pictures).

 

The road became narrow and without a shoulder. It also started going uphill again. RV’s, trucks, and numerous loud motorcycles were passing really close. The traffic was very intense with vehicles passing nearly every 5 seconds.

To make matters worse, the bicycle was not rolling nicely in the deep grass on the shoulder. Narrow tires and loaded bike are not meant for this kind of surface.

 

The head wind was making my attempts to ride uphill completely miserable.

I decided to walk on the shoulder of the opposite side, which would at least allow seeing what is approaching, when, and how close.

With some trucks running near 70, being only few feet away, created a hazard of throwing little stones from their wheels that could easily leave me without eyes. At that moment I was glad about taken the glasses.

 

Walking like this continued for little more than two hours, during which, I was really questioning whether going north instead of direct NY route, was a good idea.

 

Finally, in addition to all my accumulated discouragements of this day, appeared a sign pointing to the Devil’s Gate. This momentarily bottom lined the experience of this day.

 

In several miles, however, the road again became leveled and I stopped to takes few pictures of little country houses.

 

A gradual descent started after going further down the road. A minute after minute, a mile after mile, I didn’t have to touch the pedals.

This quickly allowed me to rest and cool down.

The road was making smooth, slow turns around the mountains. At this time my mood raised very rapidly and I was enjoying the terrific scenery. Road was going along the stream called Walker Creek.

As all cyclists know, generally, a downhill means another uphill later. So, the joy should have been relative. However, considering so many recent climbs, this was already time for a nice drop.

As I found out later, this was the gradual descent from the Sierra mountain range.

 

Holy cow! This was lasting for already an hour! I was rolling down the hill without holding the handlebars as fishermen around the creek were probably thinking I was a crazy guy.

Covering nearly 20 miles of downhill, made total day’s distance pretty decent.

 

I rode into a little town of Walker – couple of residential house blocks; two or three convenient stores and a gas station.

I stopped at one of them and got some cookies with fruits. After a little lunch, I sat at an abundant gas station and looked at maps. The road soon was supposed to go into Nevada, which I hope will be much flatter.

 

After riding another mile to the end of town and making sure there was nothing else, I returned to look for the camping spot.

 

Someone told me where the local park was and soon I found it. Park had a beautiful football fields and was located right on the edge of the town, which meant that there shouldn’t be anyone during the night.

I set up the tent behind the fence so that it wasn’t seen from the parking lot. There was also a water tap, which greatly served as a shower after it got dark.

 

Today – 55 miles.

 

 

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